


And The Chaos is Calling Me

by pocky_slash



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Alien Technology, Bitterness, Exploration, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-11
Updated: 2011-03-11
Packaged: 2017-11-04 12:06:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/393665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pocky_slash/pseuds/pocky_slash
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Gwen and Ianto explore an alien ship and consider their ties to planet Earth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And The Chaos is Calling Me

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to the lovely and talented [](http://solsticezero.livejournal.com/profile)[**solsticezero**](http://solsticezero.livejournal.com/) for beta. She's a rockstar, as always. Written for [](http://tw-unpaired.livejournal.com/profile)[**tw_unpaired**](http://tw-unpaired.livejournal.com/) Gen Fic Frolic. There are tons of awesome fics over there, so go take a look! There is maybe a sequel to this percolating, but don't hold your breath XD The title is from David Bowie's "Hallo Spaceboy."

"I don't know," Ianto said, shining his torch into the bushes. "I quite liked Christian's outfit."

"It was so..." Gwen gestured vaguely, torch light arching around the countryside as she twisted her wrist. "I mean, I suppose it was meant to be art, but it didn't seem very practical. Not something I would wear."

"Well, you'd look lovely if you did," Ianto assured her.

"I'd never fit into it!" Gwen said. "Those things are designed for walking twigs. None of those models have to contend with..." She patted her breasts and shrugged. "Anyway, I suppose it doesn't matter. I just wish Chris was locked in. Rami drives me mad. He has to get in over Rami. There's no question."

"I don't know," Ianto said. "He does have a tendency for over-the-top designs. The collar on his dress was more impractical than Christian's outfit--well, nearly. As a person, I think he brings an even keel to the group, but as a designer...can you see anything from the top of that hill?"

Gwen quickly scaled the hill and peered around the dark field, shining her torch uselessly across the landscape. "Nothing," she said. "Chris can scale back. Rami is just so full of himself."

"Oh, for Christ's sake, you two know you're on a bloody open channel, don't you?" Owen's voice crackled over the comms.

"Yes," Ianto said, wandering further into the brush.

"You interrupted our night," Gwen said. "This is the consequence. Tosh, are we anywhere near the signal?"

"It's stopped again, I'm afraid," Tosh said over the comm. "It's not even flickering, just...dead. I'm sorry."

"Nothing to be sorry about," Ianto said. "It's not your fault. We'll pack it in, then."

Gwen sighed. Another night out ruined. Or, rather, night in, as it were. All she wanted to do was spend a night on the couch with a bottle of wine and the not-entirely-legally-obtained download of the latest episode of _Project Runway_. She blamed Ianto entirely for getting her hooked on it. Of course, they couldn't even have that, could they? No, the rest of the team was busy wrangling weevils and it fell on Gwen and Ianto to investigate a mysterious signal in the woods. Now Tosh and Owen were warm and cozy in the Hub and Gwen and Ianto were stumbling through the frigid undergrowth.

"You two go home," Gwen said. "Take the portable monitor with you. If anything comes up, it's on you. Otherwise, we'll see you tomorrow morning."

"Of course," Tosh said. "Sorry again. Good night, Gwen, Ianto."

"Good night, Tosh," Gwen said, and closed the connection. Sighing, she went back down the hill and towards the trees. "Ianto, are you ready to head back, now?" Silence. Not even a rustle in the trees. Gwen closed her eyes, her heart in her throat, and repeated, "Ianto? Are you ready to go?" Again, no answer.

She didn't let herself panic. Just because Jack had disappeared without a trace didn't mean Ianto was doomed to the same fate. He had probably just wandered out of hearing range. And turned off his comm. She walked quickly towards the copse of trees where she had last seen him, her hand resting on her sidearm.

"Ianto?" she called again, and suddenly he was in front of her, wide-eyed and grinning. She may have shrieked in surprise. "Where the bloody hell have you been?" she asked, hand pressed to her chest. "I've been—"

"I found it," Ianto said. "I found—" He didn't explain, just grabbed her hand and pulled her into the trees.

And in front of a space ship.

"How in the world...?" she asked, eyes wide. There was no way they should have missed seeing this. It was huge—at least twice the size of a small house. The trees around it were snapped like twigs.

"I think there's a perception filter," Ianto said, still clutching her hand. "Like the one on the invisible lift. I didn't see it and then I stepped forward and...there it was."

Gwen had seen her share of space ships since joining Torchwood. They occasionally had to redirect tourists gone astray or unlucky pilots that slipped through the rift. They'd even stopped an invasion or two, but none of that prepared her for what she was looking at. It was the sort of thing she had always imagined when she thought of space ships—all sleek chrome and rounded edges, like it stepped right out of a futuristic sci-fi film.

"Oh, wow," she said. "Is it—"

Ianto's brilliant grin dimmed. He held up a PDA.

"No life signs," he said quietly. "But! I did find the door." He tugged her hand and she followed him over the downed trees and into a niche in the side of the ship. It was a perfect circle and a bit smaller than a regular door—Gwen would probably be able to go through no problem, but Ianto would definitely have to duck.

"We should call the others," Gwen said, but it was a distant suggestion, an afterthought. They _should_ call the others. But it was a space ship, right there in front of them. They were staring at the door of a space ship, she and Ianto, who had, somewhere in the mess Jack left behind, become the person she trusted most in the world.

"We could...do some preliminary reconnaissance," Ianto suggested. He rubbed the back of his neck and offered her a hopeful smile, which she returned.

"That way, we'd know what equipment they should bring," Gwen agreed. "When we call them. Which we will."

"Definitely," Ianto said. "But first...I mean, we're here. We might as well."

Then they both let pretense fade away and grinned at each other like eager school children.

"Right," Ianto said. "I'll try to interface with the control panel." He took two steps forward, PDA still out, and squinted at the unfamiliar, oblong buttons. He paused for a moment, then glanced over his shoulder at her. "And, um, you could keep your weapon out? Just in case."

That was the only moment Gwen paused to reconsider. What if there was something alive inside? Something they couldn't handle that somehow evaded their tech? As the seconds ticked by without a response, Ianto turned around fully to look at her. She considered it—calling Tosh and Owen, having them take the other SUV and bringing more weapons and tech....

Then she thought about the last time she had seen Ianto smile like he just had. It was ages ago. Going in on their own might not have been the most prudent thing to do, but it was still leagues better than most of Jack's command decisions. He seemed to forget that he was the only one who was indestructible, sometimes. The team broke up into pairs all the time, even under Jack's leadership.

And, really, if she was going to share this with someone, she wanted it to be Ianto.

She unholstered her gun.

"Ready," she said. "Go to it, then."

With a quick grin, Ianto returned his attention to the control panel next to the round door. As he frowned and clicked around on his PDA, Gwen found herself relaxing again, her nerves turning into giddy anticipation. She'd never been inside a real space ship before, and that was undoubtedly where this was headed.

Ianto pressed a series of the oblong buttons and she rocked up onto the balls of her feet in excitement. She made sure her weapon was steady, but when the door hissed and then slid into the side of the hull, she had to stop herself from rushing inside to look around.

"According to this," Ianto said, waving the PDA, "the air is breathable inside. Which is really something, given the number of possible atmospheres that—"

"That means we're going in, right?" Gwen asked.

Ianto rolled his eyes.

"Of course we're going in," he said. "We're standing outside a bloody spaceship. What do you take me for?" Gwen snorted. "Besides, technically you're the leader, so even if I didn't want to go in, it would be up to you. Which, by the way, is the story I'm using if this bites us in the arse."

"Noted," Gwen said. "Now let's stop standing around talking about it and actually go inside!"

Gwen wasn't stupid enough to reholster her gun, but she did lower it to her side as they stepped into the ship. The door opened into a long, curved corridor of shiny metal. They looked both ways before Gwen shrugged and headed off to the right.

The ship was silent save for the echoes of their shoes on the metal floor. On the left, there were more circular doors, though there was no obvious method of opening them. The right was just the smooth, curved interior of the ship. Gwen counted five doors before they came to a larger, taller door. It, too, was a perfect circle, but there was a keypad next to it, similar to the one next to the door outside. Ianto, still hunched over, pulled his PDA out again. While he worked on the larger door, Gwen started to inspect the other doors lining the hallway. As she approached the first one, it slid open obligingly.

"Yell when you get that," she said. She gestured towards the now open doorway in front of her. "I'm going to--"

"Yeah," Ianto said. "You yell as well, if you need anything."

"Of course," Gwen said, and then stepped into the room.

The ceiling was much higher and domed. The room was huge, maybe as big as the atrium of the Hub. Gwen replaced her gun and pulled out her torch instead, clicking it on and pointing it around the room. It was entirely empty, which seemed odd, but the beam from her torch caught a control panel on the opposite end of the room. It was the only thing of any interest in the chamber, so she walked towards it. It was best to have a look before searching for something more interesting. She was investigating the dials and buttons set into the wall when Ianto's voice echoed through the room.

"Gwen? I've found something in here."

With one last look at the control panel, Gwen returned to the hall. Ianto was hovering just inside the larger door, which was now open. It appeared to lead to a control room.

"I know this ship," Ianto said. He was grinning. "I mean, not this particular ship, but I know this language. It's from Rylan. We had what was, in effect, a Rylan encyclopedia show up at Torchwood One."

"Huh," Gwen said. Ianto gestured towards the long computer bank against the wall. His PDA was lying on top of it.

"My computer is still translating--I don't know enough Rylant to read the computers myself--but it looks like the crew jettisoned out because they thought they lost the stabilizers. They didn't, though; it was a minor glitch. I'd have to look at the translation a little more closely, but I think the ship is salvageable."

Gwen looked around, nodding appreciatively. She didn't understand, precisely, what she was looking at, but if there was an encyclopedia somewhere... well. Between Ianto and Tosh, she didn't doubt they could figure out how to get it operational. She had no bloody idea where they would store it, but it couldn't hurt to have a ship on hand.

"What were you looking at?" Ianto asked.

Gwen turned back to him and shrugged. "I'm not sure," she admitted. "There was some sort of control panel in the room, but I couldn't make heads or tails of it. Maybe with your computer?"

"All right," Ianto said. "We should probably go through each room. No reason not to start there."

He collected his handheld from the computer bank and followed her back into the domed chamber. She pointed at the control panel, taking a step back so he could interface with it, but still leaning over his shoulder to watch. After a few minutes of frowning and grunts, Ianto turned to her and shrugged.

"I don't know," Ianto said. "It might be lights?"

"Might be," Gwen said. "I suppose there's only one way to find out." She reached for the dial and before Ianto could protest, she turned it.

It was the lights. But not the sort of lights she expected.

All around them, pinpoints of light hovered in the air. If anything, the room got darker, making the spots of light even more brilliant, like stars across the night sky.

"Oh my god," Gwen said softly.

It was one of the most beautiful things she'd ever seen.

"It's the galaxy," Ianto whispered. "Bloody hell, it's a map of the galaxy."

Gwen leaned back against the wall and slid down until she was sitting on the floor, just looking out at it. She could hardly tell they were still in a ship. This was what floating through space was like, she reckoned.

Ianto sat down next to her and she lay on her back, staring up at the holographic stars floating around them.

"Would you do it?" she asked. "Given the chance, would you go out into space?"

"I would," Ianto said without so much as taking a breath. "S'been all I wanted since they took my mum away. Here on Earth there's nothing for me—well. Aside from you." Gwen tilted her head to look at him through her fringe. He, too, was staring out into the holographic galaxy. She reached up and took his hand, twining their fingers together. "I told Jack that once. I'd probably had too much to drink. I didn't like to...talk to him." Gwen snorted. "I mean really talk," he said, squeezing her hand sharply in reprimand. "About important things. I didn't think...well, I suppose I didn't want to admit it was a real relationship. It was easier that way, for me. But we were out at a pub and I'd had a few and we were talking about...oh, tech stored in the archives, I think. And he said, 'You know, you're probably the only one who knows everything that's down there. You could do whatever you'd like with it and we'd never know. What would you do, given the chance?' And I didn't even pause before telling him I'd build a ship and get the fuck off of this worthless rock." He sighed and closed his eyes, slipping down the wall until he was on his back next to Gwen, her hand still tight in his.

"That's what upsets me most, I think," Ianto continued. "That he knew that and didn't take me with him. Not because of...whatever it is we were doing, whatever it was I was to him, but because he knew how bloody badly I wanted it."

"He's a bastard," Gwen said gently. "He always was. He's just easier to forgive in person."

Ianto didn't respond, but he did open his eyes again, watching as the galaxy turned silently and slowly around them.

"We could do it, you know," she said quietly. "No one knows we're here. No one knows we found this. I'm sure you could get it working again. We could just... leave." She felt Ianto tense next to her. "We'd have to—I couldn't leave Rhys behind. But I think you'd like him. I know he'd like you."

"The three of us," Ianto said. Gwen waited for him to continue.

"Yes," she said finally. "The three of us."

"It wouldn't be hard," he said. "To get it running again, I mean. Like I said, it looks like they launched the lifeboats prematurely. The systems only have superficial damage and...and it would take me maybe ten minutes to pack."

"I'd have to take a little longer," she said. "I'd have to tell Rhys. I don't think it would be hard to convince him, but I'd have to explain and probably bring him here to get him to believe it. Then we'd have to pack, yeah."

"You think Rhys would go?" Ianto asked. "You think he would just pack up and take off if you told him to?"

"If I told him to?" Gwen asked. "If I really looked at him and told him that this was—that we were doing this, and please, I didn't want to do it without him? He'd come around quickly, I think."

Ianto looked at his watch and then looked up at her. He was more serious than she had ever seen him, more serious, even, than he was when they realized where Jack had gone.

"I'm not playing, Gwen," he said. "This isn't a fancy. I'm telling you, deathly serious, that I can fix this ship in a matter of minutes. That I can fix this ship and go back to my flat and be ready to go before morning. And that I will do it." He paused. "And that, if you weren't to come, you'd be the only thing I really missed."

Gwen stared at him. His eyes were huge and calm and he looked, in that moment, so young. She hated how young he was, sometimes. She hated what Torchwood had done to him to make her forget how young he was.

Could she do it? Could she pack a bag, some clothes, some photos, and leave the planet? Leave her parents and Megan and Trina? Leave Andy and Sara and Mr. Phillips who planted the flower boxes on the front steps, leave the girl at the newsstand who sold her three newspapers on her way to work in the morning, leave her flat and her car and wedding preparations?

Before Jack left, she would have said no. She wouldn't have been able to fathom leaving Torchwood, leaving the world she had grown up in. But Jack showed her how easy it was to fracture their made-family. They were only playing at being a team now. She had hoped his disappearance would bring them closer together, but as she and Ianto shared their pain and drew together, Toshiko and Owen were drifting away. No one's heart was in the work. Gwen's mind was barely on the work these days, and her every day life seemed meaningless, outside of Rhys. Despite Jack's best intentions, she reckoned Torchwood ruined her for a normal life right around the time she decided Owen was a good candidate to carry her secrets.

She could leave. If it got to be too much, they could always come back. And how hard could it be to survive out in the galaxy at large? If Jack could do it, if all those young people who traveled with the Doctor could do it, then Ianto would be running the place in a month and she'd have no problem keeping her head above water.

"I'm not playing either," she whispered. "I don't think I realized it until this moment."

Ianto stared at her for a long time. She wanted to flinch away. She didn't hide anything from Ianto these days, not really, but she still felt like he was pulling her secrets out as he looked at her.

"Okay," he said finally. "Okay. If we're doing this, we need to start now. It will take me about an hour to do the repairs properly. And I might need to stop by the Hub and pick up...."

He trailed off. Gwen could only assume that the same though that passed through her mind on the word "Hub" had passed through his as well.

Tosh and Owen.

Could they really just leave Tosh and Owen behind the same way Jack did?

"We can..." The words _ask them to come with us_ were on the tip of her tongue. The thought of it made her stomach roll. It wasn't that she didn't appreciate them as teammates, even as friends, but the relationship she had with them, it wasn't the same. The dynamic wouldn't be the same.

"We can leave them a note, at least," she said instead, and Ianto relaxed, though he wasn't entirely at ease.

"Still one up from Jack," he said darkly, and Gwen could only nod in agreement. "But I might need to grab a few tools. Also, I thought we might raid the archives—there's some dead useful stuff in there that doesn't mean anything on Earth but could be important once we're off it. When I've got it set to go, I can run by my flat—"

"I'll drop you at the Hub and go by mine," Gwen said. "I'll round up Rhys and break the news and we can pack and—"

The hologram in the room cut out abruptly. Gwen and Ianto both had their weapons drawn before they so much as processed the action.

"Hello?" Gwen calld out tentatively. "Is anyone—"

She didn't fire her gun when the creature stepped into the hologram chamber, but it was a close thing.

The alien was about five feet tall and the blue-grey color of pre-dawn sky. It was vaguely humanoid in shape, but all sharp angles, elbows and fingers at points that looked like they could pierce skin. Gwen didn't know what to say or do. It wasn't pointing a weapon at them, merely staring, unblinkingly. It opened its mouth and said something beyond Gwen's comprehension.

Ianto lowered his weapon, slowly, and replied in the same long sounds, though with the cadence of someone speaking a language they weren't entirely familiar with.

"I just told him—her—I just said that we didn't speak the language," Ianto murmured to her. The alien looked at them both, tilted its head, and then said something else. Ianto nodded quickly and repeated the noise. "It said 'safe.' Or a near approximation of it," he told her. Nodding, Gwen replaced her weapon as well. The alien reached into the pocket of the sleeveless black robe it was wearing and pulled out something that looked like a biro. It repeated the same noise as before, and then pointed the biro at the two of them.

There was a flash of light that left Gwen blinking at spots in her eyes, and then she heard, in a strange, craggy voice, "That should assist."

It took Gwen a moment to realize the voice was coming from the alien. They were standing in a shimmering bubble. Ianto looked as confused and intrigued as she was.

"This is translation—" And then another word she didn't understand. "It does not perfect work always. Close, though?"

"Yes," Ianto said. "Yes, it is. You're from Rylan."

"I Rylant," the alien said. "Calling Tryter." He pointed at himself. "You calling?"

Ianto and Gwen looked at each other. It clicked for Gwen, first.

"Gwen," she said. "I'm called Gwen. He's called Ianto." She pointed at herself. "Gwen." She pointed at Ianto. "Ianto."

Tryter nodded. "You be saving Rylant vessel?"

Ianto parsed this one more quickly than she did. "No," he said. "We received the signal it was down. We came to see if anyone was hurt. We could not find anyone on board. The computer said they left on—um, escape vessels?"

Tryter stared at Ianto for a long time. Gwen assumed it was having as hard a time putting the words in the right order as they were.

"You knowing Rylant words. This class five planet mean you should not knowing Rylant words or vessels."

Ianto must have gotten the rhythm of translation. He didn't even pause before explaining, tentatively, "We work for a group that knows about space and other worlds. We... protect the rest of this planet from knowledge of it."

Tryter stared at them again. His face didn't seem to express emotion the same way theirs did, but Gwen could obviously read his confusion in the length of his pause. "That very oddly," he finally said. "Still with thanks I speak. Rylant vessel carrying escaped boats. Here vessel unbroke. We thanking so thankful and leave quadrant haste. Dome dissipate when leaving. Thankful, thankful." He bowed his head at them and then stepped backwards. Gwen was still trying to follow his speech when the bubble around them burst in another flash of light. When she could see again, Tryter was gesturing out of the hologram chamber and out towards the main corridor of the ship. She didn't need to speak Rylant to know he was gracefully kicking them out.

Ianto composed a few more stilted sentences in Rylant, which Tryter responded to, and then forced a smile before taking Gwen's hand and pulling her back the way they had come in.

He sighed as he did it. Gwen wanted to hug him.

They wandered back to the entrance to the ship. As soon as they stepped outside of the round door and Ianto straightened back to his full height, the door slid shut behind them.

"Would you like to stay and see it take off?" Ianto asked. Gwen could see the devastation on his face.

"No," she said. "No, let's go home. Your home, okay? I'll take you to bed." Ianto snatched his hand back and took a step backwards.

"Gwen," he said quickly. "I appreciate you and I...you're very...but I don't—I couldn't. Not with Rhys and—"

Gwen rolled her eyes.

"Don't flatter yourself," she said, smacking his arm. "I didn't mean that. I meant we should finish that bottle of wine, just you and me, and...well, I thought maybe you'd like some company, is all. _Totally platonic_."

Ianto relaxed. Gwen thought she detected a blush high on his cheeks, but the light was too low to tell for sure. "Oh," he said. "That would be...well. I mean. If you'd like, that would be wonderful."

"I'd like," Gwen assured him, stepping forward to pull him into a hug. Ianto was stiff at first, but he relaxed into the embrace in fits and starts until he was sagging against her, his hands fisted in her jacket. Despite weeks of sharing confidences and leadership duties and meals and pirated episodes of American reality shows, Gwen wondered if this wasn't the first time Ianto had completely relaxed in front of her.

The moment was broken by a long noise that sounded almost like a bird call. Ianto stepped back and looked back at the spaceship one last time as the lights on the outside turned on one by one.

"Let's go," he said turning back to her. Gwen nodded and took his hand, pulling him back into the trees, back towards the car, back towards Torchwood. They were halfway into the trees by the time the ship took off. It took everything Gwen had not to look back and watch it, but she managed to keep going. She thought Ianto needed the solidarity more than she needed to watch a hunk of metal shoot into the sky.

They walked through the woods hand-in-hand and silent. As they crossed the grassy field back to where the car was parked, Gwen's mind wandered back to the hologram room.

"Ianto," she said. "When you told Jack you could build a ship with what's in the archives...could you really do that?"

"I could," he said. They slowed to a stop.

"What's stopping you?" she asked. Ianto raised his eyes to meet hers. She nodded.

"Nothing," he said. "Nothing at all."


End file.
